I recently spent time testing a 2023 Kia Niro Hybrid for Kelley Blue Book. It took me two days to decode what one symbol on the dashboard meant. The thing looked like nothing so much as a paper airplane. But, apparently, it was a folded map. Arrows connected it to a fan symbol. Pressing it toggled a set of buttons between controlling temperature and the navigation screen.
Today’s cars are full of confusing symbols. Graphic designers have it hard. Asked to convey complex ideas in tiny symbols, sometimes they give us wavy heat lines we see as bacon or exclamation points that leave us generally alarmed with no idea why.
Related: Why Is My Check Engine Light On?
Apple thinks your iPhone can solve this.
An operating system update coming to second-generation iPhone SE and later models will include the ability to decode dashboard icons.
The feature comes as part of iOS 17, an upgrade currently available in beta form. Gizmodo explains, “The capabilities of the Visual Lookup feature are being expanded to include all of the various symbols on a vehicle’s dashboard.”
To use Visual Lookup, iPhone users snap a photo of almost anything. When they open the resulting image, they’ll find an icon underneath it that looks like the letter I in a circle surrounded by sparkles. Clicking that icon opens a window with text explaining what’s in the photo if the iPhone’s AI-based system can identify it. That, Apple says, includes identifying “plants, animals, landmarks, and more” in the photo.
Related: What Is Apple CarPlay?
“More,” in this case, includes dashboard symbols. It’s a helpful trick, at least for a while. Gizmodo notes, “Eventually, vehicle dashboards will all just be giant screens with the ability to provide more descriptive information about controls and warnings.”
But, until that technology has proliferated everywhere, a phone that can tell you what a teapot with an exclamation point on it means seems like a useful device. It means low oil, by the way. That icon is an oil can — something no one has owned in decades.
